Two Part Harmony
by DancingInStars
Summary: You see, the strange thing about life is that you never know who you might end up meeting-given the right timing. Before they were heroes, they were nothing more than average citizens of Acmetropolis. Rising stars, destined to collide. Until then, there's nothing wrong with a little detour along the way... [Multi-character and genre]


_Your surroundings are unfamiliar when you look around you. The buildings are tall, mostly metallic and luminous even in the dark. The sky has long gone from the blue that you remember it as, instead painted a hazy purple. Citizens move around you, laughing and chattering and going on with their business without sparing you a second glance. _

_You blink, of course you would be confused; the Earth that you knew so well was long gone._

_You see, stars inhabit this city, 800 years in the future. _

_Like stars, sometimes their pathways weave around each other, sometimes they spend lifetimes travelling along side each other, never knowing of each other's existence, never knowing that their paths were destined to one day collide.__And like stars, the event would be explosive, mind blowing, a collision of light and fire and sound. All the lives involved would be changed forever..._

_And none in ways that they could possibly expect._

_But until then, I'll stick around. Acmetropolis is a big place, teaming with life. Like the Earth you so clearly remember, good and evil are always at odds with each other, and like the Earth you remember, this world too is full of good and bad people… _

IOIOIOI

The little café on the corner of the road was crowded that day.

"All I'm trying to say is," the bunny, Lexi, reached up with the back of her hand to sweep her blonde bangs away from her eyes as she spoke, "It took us way too long to have invented hover crafts. I mean, with the speed that humanity was progressing starting from the 19th century, they should have at least managed a prototype by the 21st century." Her palm supported her chin, elbow resting on the table. She pointed at the book opened in front of her—A Complete History of the World: Volume VIII—with no little indignation, "According to this they were still arguing over basic human rights then!"

Her human companion laughed. She was a petite thing, jet black hair pulled back into simple knot with a chopstick holding it in place. "I'm aware of that. There's not much we can do though, idiocy is apparently a universal and timeless thing." She took a sip of the steaming mug of hot chocolate beside her, fingers curling around the warmth, "To be honest, I think it's amazing that despite that, they still managed to accomplish so much."

"But Sapph, don't you think that they should have been able to manage so much more?" Lexi argued, lifting her gaze to look up at her friend. "They had the equipment; their technology even then was ground breaking!"

Sapphire, feet dangling high above the ground on the seat, took another sip of her drink before speaking, "Of course I do, but I'm sure that they had their reasons." She touched the corner of the book thoughtfully, "You know, we still have Physics and Maths to cover, right? We've been going through History for the past two days." This was said with a wary glance around their little table, cramped with books and notes, stationary strewn in every other direction. "At the rate that we're going, we probably have to say goodbye to even starting on Geography today."

Lexi opened her mouth to reply, but decided against it after throwing a cursory glance onto the street from the wide window beside them. The sky was streaked with stark hues of orange and soft pinks, the sun rapidly descending into the Acmetropolis skyline as if to embrace the darkness that slinks in after it. She sighed, resting her palm flat against the table in defeat, "Okay, maybe you're right."

The other girl giggled, a silvery sound just as bright as her eyes, "I'm always right. The mystery is why people few people take me seriously."

Despite herself, Lexi found herself smiling along, "Because you say things like that, you freak." The last bit was accompanied with a jab from the back of her pen against Sapphire's ribs. She let out a small, protesting squeak, wiggling out of the way. Lexi dropped the pen back onto the table, laughing, "In that case, what do you propose we do?"

Sapphire drummed her fingers along the sides of the table, biting her lip thoughtfully—she could never keep still, that girl with streaks of blue shooting through her dark hair. She understood what Lexi implied; with less than 24 hours to their mid terms, they had directed all their energy—whether real or artificial—into pouring over their books. "To be honest," her smile was almost apologetic, "My bed is the only place I can think of doing anything right now."

The bunny arched an eyebrow, grinning. "You don't say?"

Sapphire reached for a book—thoughtful enough to reach passed the dictionary—and swatted her friend lightly on the arm, "I meant sleep. If I have to look at another diagram of the human digestion system I might actually puke up my own for you to study."

Lexi rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics, stretching her arms out over the table until she felt her joints pop. "We wouldn't want that now, would we?" She looked out of the window once more. A production crew was set up on the other side of the street opposite the café, cameras and lights and long cables snaking their way across the ground. They seemed to be filming some sort of fight scene, if the large, mechanical lizard pinning the man to the ground was to be of any indication.

"Those poor things have been at it all afternoon," Sapphire quipped, having followed her friend's gaze. "They must be exhausted."

"Yeah, it must be so exhausting to stand there and look tough, then step back to let other people to actually do their work for them," Lexi replied, sarcasm creeping into the shape of her words despite herself. She had been watching them periodically throughout the day; the scene encompassed the whole street, following the fight as it progressed. Each time the scene had required some real action, the actor would merely step away and duck back into the shade to make room for the stunt man who would take his place.

Sapphire tossed a reproachful look over to her friend, "I meant those people working for them. We've been here all day and I don't think some of them have taken off for lunch." She clicked her tongue and echoed her previous statement, "Those poor dears."

Lexi turned away to look Sapphire in the face, taking in her softened expression. They've known each other long and well enough to know what was going on in the other's mind. Both of them understood just a little too well that sometimes life doesn't deal your cards as well as you would want it too, and that some people are just a little luckier than others in that aspect. Both of them wouldn't even be able to afford AcmeTech College if it wasn't for the partial scholarship that they both had acquired from years of hard work in high school. It didn't matter that while their own stories had had its own separate, different beginnings before their paths had crossed, they both understood the fundamentality of their situations; poor is poor.

Something stirred in her mind, fingers reaching out for her purse even before she asked, "Sapph, how much do they charge for a box of doughnuts here?

A few minutes later the two friends were exciting the café, holding two neatly packed boxes—a dozen doughnuts—one each other an arm, their bulging bags slung around their shoulders and swinging by their hips. A lanky Asian boy working on some wiring looked up as they approached, waving apologetically. He seemed barely a year older than them, "Sorry ladies, can you please go the other way? We're still shooting this sce-"

He was cut off as Sapphire shoved her box into his arms, smiling so brightly that it could have easily blinded the better part of Acmetropolis by sheer exuberance, "Don't worry, we'll be on our way in a bit."

The boy's confused gaze flickered between the box and the two girls for a moment before Lexi decided to step up, "What she meant to say was," she started, elbowing Sapphire lightly. The other girl pouted, but let her go on. "We saw you guys working and thought we'd just do something nice. They're not much-"

"But we just happen to be a pair of broke college students, what do you expect?" Sapphire quipped, darting just out of reach of Lexi's elbow once again.

There was a low whistle from their left as another, older, man approached, forehead drenched with sweat under his mop of curly hair. "That's awfully kind of you two. If this job paid more than enough to keep us alive, we'd return the favour." Lexi's smile faltered, uncertain, until the man let out a bark of good natured laughter. "Until then, just let our grateful stomachs be the judge of that. Thanks."

The two joined in the laughter after a while, Lexi handing her own box to the first boy. "No prob."

There was an indignant shout of 'Oi!' before a young woman's head popped up over his shoulder, her impish grin bright against her olive skin, "You two aren't planning to keep the party to yourselves, are you?" Deftly, she snatched the first box away, slipping around him to stand beside Lexi, "Much obliged, sweethearts."

"Nah, of course we weren't gonna do that, Tammy. I mean it's not like that black hole you call a stomach can eat everything out from under us." This garnered a round of laughter as the woman, Tammy, lunged around them to punch him playfully on the arm. Her shoulders were still shaking from laughter when she, impulsively, caught both Sapphire and Lexi in a hug.

The two girls left after another round of thanks, waving over their shoulders as the night crept in all around them. The city was coming to live all around them, lights flashing and colours racing along the top of the skyscrapers. It wasn't long before they disappeared around the corner, Lexi's blonde hair nothing more than a flash in the distance.

IOIOIOI

"Yo Ace! C'mon, I saved one for you!"

Ace Bunny walked over to them in surprise, his stomach immediately grumbling at the sight of the last doughnut in the box. Around him, his co-workers were licking at their fingers, joking and laughing. Tammy offered him the box, smiling ruefully, "If you were just two flicks of your little tail later, I would've taken it."

He grinned, "Just my luck then."

"Dude!" The Asian boy, Danial was his name, clapped Ace on the shoulder, "You should've been here earlier, one of 'em girls was a bunny too! That's like, instant chemistry, right?"

"I'm gonna ignore what you're tryin' to imply there, Doc, just cause the cream on your face is distracting." Ace pointed out in reply. He didn't add that he probably wouldn't even have the nerve to approach her even if he had been here. Mastering martial arts and practising in between takes for a half second of your name flashing on screen was one thing, it was another to consider that there would actually be someone out there willing to put up with him and the unpredictability of this life. It wasn't the perfect job, and the money he was making was barely enough for him to scrape through—but it was something.

"Maybe next time, Bunny boy?" Tammy laughed, patting his arm.

Ace could only grin in return, his gaze lifted up to the darkened sky. He could barely see the stars from here, the lights from the city have all but rendered them invisible, "Yeah, maybe someday."

END

IOIOIOI

**Author's notes:**

_Hi! If you've made it this far, I just wanted to say thanks. It's been a while since I've written anything, and while I know that LU has long ended, I was considering making this into a short series about each of the team—if not just for nostalgic purposes._

_So drop a comment if you want me to write about any two (or more) characters in their pre-LU days. It would be much appreciated._


End file.
